Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsForget the tax returns; show me his brain scans
Yes, it would appear that brain scans can tell us if he's a liar or a bull-shitter.
A lie occurs when someone has the intent to deceive, that is, the misrepresentation is not merely inadvertent. On the other hand, B.S. occurs when the speaker doesnt even care what is true or not, and is just making things up. These are clearly separate cases. The B.S.-er shows a blatant disregard for facts and figures and, to him or her, they hold no value. The liar may well be a very methodical collector of facts, who uses them or lies about them in order to advance an agenda.
The B.S.-er can be more dangerous than the liar because he or she wont even agree, as the liar does, that facts exist. This places the entire conversation into a bizarro alternate world in which up is down and lies are truth.
Research in cognitive neuroscience since Frankfurts time reveals something that was not then known about how the brain generates B.S. The human brain is made up of two hemispheres, the familiar left and right. The old story that the left is for language and the right for art is outdated. But the hemispheres do specialize in two important ways. The left brain is responsible for making order out of chaos, for making sense of things in the world that dont always add up. To do this, it often makes up stories, fantastic confabulations in some cases, just to be able to explain what were experiencing. The right brain, however, contains a powerful B.S. detector, the wont-take-no-guff fact-checking system. The right brain keeps track of what is actually going on, while the left brain is busy spinning stories and theories. The left tries to explain not just external events, but our own mood shifts.
But what happens if the fact-checking right brain becomes damaged, or disconnected from the left brain? The left just goes on and on, making stuff up without being checked. Brain scans can potentially reveal right-brain atrophy or damage, or even hyperactive left-brain circuits that overpower their right-brain gatekeepers. Todd Feinberg, from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, has shown that people who confabulate are likely to have right-brain damage. This converges nicely with a host of studies, including those by Michael Gazzaniga at the University of California, Santa Barbara, showing that people with a damaged corpus callosum the mass of fibers that connects the two hemispheres are unable to stop themselves from lying when information is presented to the confabulating left brain.
The next time you hear a politician answering a question about evidence by saying I feel, or dismissing actual evidence as irrelevant or fake, youre probably dealing with a B.S.-er, not a pathological liar. If a politician says that our countrys gross domestic product (GDP) is less than zero, or that unemployment may be as high as 42 percent, youre probably not dealing with a liar. These are not the sort of razor-sharp lies that a manipulator of the truth might employ in order to get his way. There are so many ways that unemployment can be measured, for example, that there is no need to make up numbers one can simply choose the number that best makes ones point. At least then we the public can engage in an evidence-based discussion about whether that was the appropriate number to use or not, and what to do about unemployment.
The B.S.-er can be more dangerous than the liar because he or she wont even agree, as the liar does, that facts exist. This places the entire conversation into a bizarro alternate world in which up is down and lies are truth.
Research in cognitive neuroscience since Frankfurts time reveals something that was not then known about how the brain generates B.S. The human brain is made up of two hemispheres, the familiar left and right. The old story that the left is for language and the right for art is outdated. But the hemispheres do specialize in two important ways. The left brain is responsible for making order out of chaos, for making sense of things in the world that dont always add up. To do this, it often makes up stories, fantastic confabulations in some cases, just to be able to explain what were experiencing. The right brain, however, contains a powerful B.S. detector, the wont-take-no-guff fact-checking system. The right brain keeps track of what is actually going on, while the left brain is busy spinning stories and theories. The left tries to explain not just external events, but our own mood shifts.
But what happens if the fact-checking right brain becomes damaged, or disconnected from the left brain? The left just goes on and on, making stuff up without being checked. Brain scans can potentially reveal right-brain atrophy or damage, or even hyperactive left-brain circuits that overpower their right-brain gatekeepers. Todd Feinberg, from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, has shown that people who confabulate are likely to have right-brain damage. This converges nicely with a host of studies, including those by Michael Gazzaniga at the University of California, Santa Barbara, showing that people with a damaged corpus callosum the mass of fibers that connects the two hemispheres are unable to stop themselves from lying when information is presented to the confabulating left brain.
The next time you hear a politician answering a question about evidence by saying I feel, or dismissing actual evidence as irrelevant or fake, youre probably dealing with a B.S.-er, not a pathological liar. If a politician says that our countrys gross domestic product (GDP) is less than zero, or that unemployment may be as high as 42 percent, youre probably not dealing with a liar. These are not the sort of razor-sharp lies that a manipulator of the truth might employ in order to get his way. There are so many ways that unemployment can be measured, for example, that there is no need to make up numbers one can simply choose the number that best makes ones point. At least then we the public can engage in an evidence-based discussion about whether that was the appropriate number to use or not, and what to do about unemployment.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/02/21/forget-tax-returns-show-his-brain-scans/DEBTXl8R04Nw8tBIqpt1GI/story.html?s_campaign=email_BG_TodaysHeadline&s_campaign=
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
10 replies, 1619 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (5)
ReplyReply to this post
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Forget the tax returns; show me his brain scans (Original Post)
Native
Feb 2017
OP
To avoid confusion, make sure they know that Abby Normal is not the name of the patient
pinboy3niner
Feb 2017
#5
njhoneybadger
(3,910 posts)1. That explains it
tRump voters are right side brain dead.
C_U_L8R
(44,889 posts)2. Not a lot there
lindysalsagal
(20,433 posts)6. WINNER
lindysalsagal
(20,433 posts)3. He'll just tell his minions that his brain is normal.
Orrex
(63,083 posts)4. They'll need an electron microscope
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)5. To avoid confusion, make sure they know that Abby Normal is not the name of the patient
world wide wally
(21,718 posts)7. They examined my head and didn't find anything: Yogi Berra (DT)
Peacetrain
(22,836 posts)10. Now that is funny!!!